What was expected to be a tight tussle turned into a mismatch with Wales leading 20-0 early in the second half and leading 34-0 until a late consolation score for the Scots.

“It was an afternoon that I was expecting, the guys have been outstanding in their preparation and we did go into the game expecting to win and win reasonably comfortably,” said Gatland.

“I said to the chief executive [of the WRU, Martyn Phillips] that the guys will win by 20, he looked a little bit shocked but that was how well we trained.

“I thought that we defended superbly against a lot of Scottish attacking threats. We coped with that, there was a soft try at the end but our defence was outstanding.

“Getting the bonus point was pretty pleasing as well and we probably left two or three tries out on the pitch as well.

“There is some improvement to do and hopefully as a squad we’ll get better for next week.”

Wales now head to Twickenham to take on the champions, aided by an extra day of preparation with England facing Italy in Rome tomorrow.

Gatland says he has some welcome selection headaches for London with George North looking in fine form for Northampton on Friday evening after knee troubles and full-back/wing Liam Williams set to take a full part in training following an abdominal muscle injury.

“We never spoke at all about injuries or players being unavailable,” said Gatland. “I said to the players this week that there were no excuses.

“Players that were coming in all believe in their own ability, a lot of them think they are better than those not involved.

“We lost Jake Ball but Cory Hill is one of the most-improved players in Wales, Ross Moriarty is in for Taulupe Faletau, Josh Navidi was outstanding in the autumn and there is a lot of competition in that position, Gareth Davies is in for Rhys Webb, Jonathan Davies is out but Scott Williams was in midfield while the two wingers have been playing with a lot of confidence.

“There are going to be some tough decisions and it’s nice to be having that competition in the squad and quality players fighting it out.”

Ipsoregulated

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